The Nation Newspaper

Tag: Popular Nigerian News

  • Residents nab ‘kidnap’ syndicate operating in Taxi

    Residents of Bariga have arrested members of a suspected kidnap and robbery syndicate operating in a taxi.

    The suspects including an old man said to be the driver were arrested on Wednesday after one of the victims identified their operational vehicle, a dark green Toyota Camry.

    It was gathered that the victim, a woman, had boarded the taxi on Tuesday on her way to work but was diverted towards Badagry Expressway where her hands, legs and mouth were tied.

    The gang comprising four men, allegedly dispossessed her of her phone, N20,000 and other valuables before pushing her out of the vehicle inside a bush, to find her way.

    Luck however ran out of the gang on Wednesday when the said victim saw them and raised alarm.

    According to a resident, Alhaji Kolade Awofeso, one of the suspects fled but the mob was able to apprehend three.

    “The remaining three were taken to Bariga Police Station including the elderly man (driver). Surprisingly at the Bariga Police Station, the suspects were familiar with the policemen.

    “They surprisingly asked the elderly man about the stolen items collected from the victim. He responded that he has handed them over to one Mama who turned out to be the owner of the vehicle used for the unbridled kidnapping and robbing,” said Awofeso.

    Meanwhile, armed robbers last weekend attacked a photojournalist with Security Express Magazine Oluwasegun Falola at his 17, Bajulaye Street Shomolu residence.

    According to the victim, the robbers attacked his residence around 3am on Saturday, while he was asleep and hit his head with a cutlass after he told them he did not have money.

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    The robbers, he said demanded his Automated Teller Machine (ATM) card, laptop, three telephones, video camera, computer hard drive and other valuables before exiting his apartment.

    Falola said they also locked him inside his apartment so he would not be able to come out or raise alarm, adding that he had to break his window to seek help from nearby De-Bajo Hospital since he was bleeding.

    But the victim’s plight was worsened after he realised that the robbers had withdrawn the only N50,000 he had which he planned to use in offsetting his medical bills.

    He said he was still at a loss as to how the robbers were able to access his account without his pin, adding that he had reported the case at the Alade Police Station in Shomolu.

    Police spokesman Bala Elkana, a Deputy Superintendent (DSP) confirmed that two of the kidnap suspects were in custody and investigation was ongoing.

  • CBN governor, AGF to appear before Reps over N33b pension fund remittance

    The Governor of Central Bank (CBN), Godwin Emefiele and the Accountant-General of the Federation (AGF), Ahmed Idris are to appear before the House of Representatives on Tuesday.

    The duo are to clarify alleged remittance of N33b pension deductions to the Federal government by PenCom before the House of Representatives ad hoc Committee investigating alleged irregularities in National Pensions Commission (PenCom)

    According to the Chairman of the Committee, Johnson Agbonayinma said noticeable discrepancies in the pension deductions claimed to have remitted by the Acting Director-General (DG) of PenCom, Aisha Dahir-Umar made the appearance of the two critical to the investigation.

    While appearing before the Committee at the public hearing yesterday, the Nigerian Union of Contributory Pensioners (NUCP) indicted PenCom and Pension Fund Administrators (PFAs) of several infringements.

    In its presentation, the group regretted that the new pension scheme has compounded, rather than alleviating problems faced by retirees under the Contributory Pension Scheme.

    U.C. Ekpo and Emezuru Eugene signed the memorandum where PenCom was accused of failing to review contributors’ pension every five years as provided in Section 173 (3) of the 1999 Constitution (as amended).

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    The Union also observed persistent delays in payment of retirees’ benefits to over two years as well as lack of standardized template and transparency in computation of lump sums paid after retirement.

    PenCom was also faulted for gender inequality in the payment of lump sums in contravention of the Pension Reform Act.

    While calling on PenCom to confine itself to its functions as a regulator rather than meddling in the union’s activities, the Union noted that “It appeared the essence of the new pension scheme is to create capital for the Pension Fund Administrators (PFA) to maximize profits and enrich themselves.

    “Worse still, PenCom, which is empowered to strictly enforce the Pension Reform Act in regulating the activities of PFAs and Pension Custodians, has become a violator of the same Act in many ways.

    “The sum total of anomalies and injustices perpetrated by PenCom in its implementation of the Contributory Pension Scheme leads to suffering, pain and premature death of pensioners in Nigeria.”

  • ‘Do Good’ actor, Oliver dies in car crash

    Nollywood actor, LinChung Oliver, a.k.a. Silvanus in `Do Good’ has passed away after a car crash on his way to Lagos after attending his mother’s burial in his hometown.

    Basorge Tariah, the producer and star actor in the sitcom `Do Good’, took to his instagram to announce the death.

    He said: “My Heart is so so heavy right now. I am in a dark and painful place. Tragedy is a euphemism. We just lost SILVANUS of DO GOOD.

    ”My dear brother was returning from the burial of his mother when death added my friend to his mean account. RIP. These tears won’t stop flowing.

    “Am so speechless and so sad. You were such a lovely soul. You smile, you play and never complained.

    “You leave a vacuum that most of the world cannot fill. I will miss you so much, it burns my heart. Sleep! Sleep great and awesome Talent. Sleep.”

    Oliver is widely referred to as LinChung and Sylvanus for his role in Basorge Tariah Jnr produced series, ‘Do Good’.

    He once worked at Star FM on a radio programme alongside a few other comedians.

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    Oliver’s death is coming days after that of Abe Ishola Monsurat Olabisi aka Bisket.

    His death made it the eighth in Nollywood since January 2019.

    Bisket died almost three months after the death of Gbenga Akintunde aka Burger, who died at the age of 47 on Jan. 4.

    On Jan. 4 Adewale Olarenwaju, aka Ishow Larry died while Funmilayo Ogunsola aka Ijewuru died on Feb. 4.

    On Feb. 27, the death of another actor, Rotimi Alfred Popoola was announced by the Ogun state chapter of the Theatre Arts and Movie Practitioners Association of Nigeria.

    Tony Anyasodor’s death makes it the fifth in Nollywood since January 2019.

    On Tuesday, March 12, the death of ‘Behind the Clouds’ producer, Paul Emema, was announced by one of his colleagues.

  • Nigeria ranks 85 on Global Happiness Report

    As the world marks the International Day of Happiness, Nigeria is ranked 85 out of 156 countries and second in sub-Saharan Africa.

    This is according to the annual Global Happiness Policy Report produced by the Global Happiness Council, which was released on Wednesday.
    It was edited by John F. Helliwell, Richard Layard, Jeffrey D. Sachs, et al.

    Nigeria’s ranking is an improvement from its 91 position ranking in 2018.

    Finland came first as the happiest country in the world for the second year in a row, followed by Denmark, Norway, Iceland and the Netherlands.

    The world’s least happy country is South Sudan followed by Central African Republic, Afghanistan, Tanzania, Rwanda, Yemen, Malawi, Syria, Botswana and Haiti.

    The report ranks countries on six key variables that support wellbeing: income, freedom, trust, healthy life expectancy, social support and generosity.

    This is the seventh World Happiness Report; the first was released in April 2012 in support of a UN High level meeting on “Wellbeing and Happiness: Defining a New Economic Paradigm”.

    The report presented the available global data on national happiness and reviewed related evidence from the emerging science of happiness.

    It showed that the quality of people’s lives can be coherently, reliably, and validly assessed by a variety of subjective wellbeing measures, collectively referred to then and in subsequent reports as “happiness.”

    This year, the focus was on happiness and community: how happiness has been changing over the past dozen years, and how information technology, governance and social norms influence communities.

    The report showed that the annual data for Finland have continued their modest, but steady upward trend since 2014.

    So that dropping 2015 and adding 2018 boosts the average score, thereby putting Finland significantly ahead of other countries in the top 10.

    Denmark and Norway have also increased their average scores.

    The United States came in the 19th place, dropping one spot since last year and a total of five spots since 2017.

    On the whole, Helliwell said: “What stands out about the happiest and most well connected societies is their resilience and ability to deal with bad things.

    “After the 2011 earthquake and now the terrorist attack in Christchurch, with high social capital, where people are connected, people rally and help each other and (in after the earthquake) rebuild immediately,’’ he said.